


Riddle of the School Lockers

by wsdsrdbw4096



Series: Coolsville Central [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Modern Era, Origin Story, Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-04-22 11:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14307990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wsdsrdbw4096/pseuds/wsdsrdbw4096
Summary: First entry of my William Walter Wu series. There are more to the school lockers at William's new school than meets the eye when he began investigating a series of thefts at school.





	1. Prologue and on the way to school

**Author's Note: Here's the first entry of my William Walter Wu series as part of my Dimension One stories, folks!**

**This story is essentially **a revamp and re-title of _William's First Case_ originally published on FictionPress, which is part of my revamping of my William Walter Wu character.****

**William Walter Wu is basically the D1 counterpart of my mainstream character Garfield Stephenson Wu, only that there are some deviations.**

**First, while the two shares the same birthday, William is born in the year 1995 while Garfield is born in the year 1953.**

**Second, their families are largely different, where details of William's family are going to be revealed in the coming chapter.**

**And third, unlike Dimension Four, the world of Dimension One is largely similar to the real world with several differences:**

**First, Ottawa, Canada is part of the Canadian Capital Territory (Like its D4 counterpart) instead of Ontario, and there are several deviations from real-life.**

**For instance, Ottawa still has its streetcars running today (In real-life, sadly, the last streetcar terminated services in Ottawa in 1959), and Union Station is still active as a railway station today (Sadly in real-life, Ottawa Union Station was closed down and replaced by the Central Station located in Ottawa East in 1966).**

**Second, East Asia is largely different than in real-life, where the People's Republic of China and North Korea never existed (As a result of a different outcome of the Chinese Civil War, which dragged out longer than in real-life and spilled into the Korean Peninsula, resulting in the Korean War).**

**That being said, although the Republic of China in this world is the world's largest democracy and welfare state and possesses the largest standing military, in terms for foreign relations, China is at odds with the United States.**

**In fact, it can be argued that relations between Nanjing and Washington in this world are more tense and strained than relations between Beijing and Washington in real-life, strained relations that is the product of a failed CIA-backed military coup in China in 1956 in this world.**

**For readers who understand Chinese:**

**這個虛構世界裡，國共內戰有爆發，但內戰結果跟現實不同，所以這世界的中國就是中華民國。**

**雖然中華民國在這世界裡是全球最大的民主和福利國家，也擁有全世界最大的軍隊，這世界的中華民國跟美國之間的關係比現實中美關係還要更緊張，主要原因是因為美國中央情報局於1956年在中國發動一個試圖推翻當年連任成功的民社黨黨籍總統的失敗的軍事政變。**

**另外，臺灣在經歷日本的治理下後於1997年回歸中華民國。**

**中國總共劃分成35省、16直轄市(包括香港和澳門)和西藏、新疆和蒙古三地方。首都設在南京。**

**大韓民國和日本之間的關係跟現實一樣緊張，但北韓並沒有在這世界裡存在。**

**這世界裡的東亞國家:中華民國、大韓民國和日本國。除了韓國以外，東亞全都是靠左行駛的。**

**The world of Dimension One is part of the shared universe of my _Coolsville Central_ series.**

**In the meantime, in addition to English, this story also features dialogue and thoughts in Chinese and Japanese, all of which are accompanied by English translations.**

**Legend:**

**中文 (Chinese), _日文_  (Japanese)**

**Another disclaimer: All events and characters presented in this story are entirely FICTIONAL, while all real-life locations are FICTIONALIZED.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Prologue and on the way to school

_September 7, 2010_

It was a warm morning in Ottawa as the alarm clock sitting on the short cupboard right beside fifteen-year-old William Walter Wu's bed went off at the usual time of 7:30.

William groaned as his radio-alarm clock began going off and, being tuned onto CBC Radio Two, the radio started playing popular music.

"喔，該起床了。(Oh, time to get up.)" William muttered under his breath as he struggled to get up from his bed and turn off the alarm clock.

After that, he yawned and stretched before sitting up and putting on his slippers and proceeded with his usual morning routine.

His clothes were hanging in the nearby closet, and after he returned to his bedroom, he immediately changed into his favourite attire of a green polo shirt and a pair of casual cream-white pants with a belt before proceeding to the dining room of his house, where Jonathan and Sandra Kudo, his Japanese foster parents, were preparing breakfast.

" _獷勝，你對上十年級的第一天有感到興奮嗎?_ " (Guang-Shen (William's Chinese name), are you excited for the first day of grade ten?) Mrs. Kudo asked as William sat down to have his oatmeal with raisins.

" _是的，伯母。_ " (Yes, Auntie.) William replies before starting his breakfast.

After the short conversation with his foster parents, William finished his breakfast and went to put the bowl into the kitchen sink before taking his lunch box.

As William made his way back to the washroom to do his business, his foster brother and foster sister, named Patrick and Jessica, made their way to the front door.

"Have fun in your first day at Glebe, Billy." Patrick said to him.

William nodded. " _我會的。_ " (I will.)

Patrick nodded as he ruffled William's hair before following his sister Jessica.

After finishing his business in the washroom, William then made his way to the house door to put on his shoes before saying, " _我要出門了。_ " (I'm heading out now.)

" _好的。_ " (All right.) Mrs. Kudo replies as she gave her foster son a hug. "Have fun."

William nodded before he opened the door and stepped into the warm late-summer day in Old Ottawa South and made his way towards Bronson Ave.

Although William and his foster family only recently moved into Old Ottawa South, he was actually familiar with the area.

William Walter Wu (Chinese name: 吳獷勝) was born on June 23, 1995 in the Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Canadian Capital Territory, Canada and spent the first six years of his life growing up in the nation's capital.

It was during this time that he started attending kindergarten and first grade in public school and take piano lessons before a tragic event took place when he was six, a tragic event that that will change William's life forever.

Before getting on the event in question, it is essential to be introduced to William's biological family, as it will be complicated to explain the tragic event than needed if William's biological family weren't introduced.

His father Winston (Chinese name: 吳光源) is a mechanical engineer who, at the time of William's birth, was finishing his doctorate studies in the field at Carleton University.

He first came to Canada in 1988 as an international student, and it was during his master's and doctorate studies at Carleton University that he became acquainted with a fellow international student who's also studying mechanical engineering.

That fellow international student is Jonathan Hideki Kudo (Japanese name: 工藤秀喜), who is the older brother of a famed Japanese author renowned for his mystery novels, and Winston shared a very good friendship with him.

Their friendship continued upon graduation from their doctorate studies, and it was Jonathan that introduced Winston to his future wife Laura Lee when they returned to Japan and Taiwan together during the summer of 1992.

Laura (Chinese name: 李宜竹) is a chemical engineer who is good friends with Jonathan and his fiance Sandra, and both Sandra and Jonathan were happy to introduce Winston to her.

Anyways, William wasn't the only one that Laura gave birth to at the Riverside Hospital on June 23, 1995. She ended up giving birth to a set of twins, consisting of William and a twin sister named Margaret.

William was quite happy with his family, but unfortunately, that happiness wouldn't last long.

William's life was changed forever in the summer of 2001, when during a calm summer night, the family house in the South Keys area was engulfed in flames without warning.

Response from the Canadian Capital Territory Fire Service was swift, though the fire was very intense.

William remembered being picked up by his father, who left him on the front lawn before heading back inside to find Laura and Margaret.

That was the last time he saw his father, though. Later that night at the police station, William was given the devastating news.

His parents both perished in the fire, but rescuers were unable to locate Margaret's body in the wreckage.

Jonathan was devastated by the news, and after going through a series of arrangements, William was adopted by the Kudos.

The fire's cause was later determined to be from arson, though police were unable to find evidence pertaining to the perpetrator of the fire, and the case has gone down into the books as unsolved.

Not long after the house fire, Jonathan decided that it was best that the family leave Canada to give William room to recover and move on, and together, the family moved back to Taiwan, where Jonathan had taken up a new job with Wayne Enterprises as a researcher.

William's three years in Taiwan were uneventful, though it was during this time that he began taking up violin lessons on top of the piano lessons he was taking.

After William turned nine, the Kudos moved to Kyoto, Japan following Jonathan's transfer to the Warne Enterprises office there.

Over the course of his growing up in Taiwan and Japan, William became fluent in Taiwanese Hokkien, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, in addition to the brief level of English introduced to him during kindergarten and the English classes in school.

After William graduated from elementary school in 2007, a week after turning twelve years old, Jonathan was given an offer to move to Vancouver for a three-year tenure as the director of the Wayne Enterprises office in Vancouver.

Jonathan and his wife Snadra debated on the offer, and eventually the family decided to move back to Canada.

Arriving in late-August, the family settled in a large apartment in Vancouver.

By this point, Patrick, who is six years older than William, has graduated from high school and has accepted an offer of admission from the University of Waterloo, studying civil engineering.

As the family settled in Vancouver, William and his foster sister Jessica were enrolled in the neighbouring public schools, with Jessica attending the nearby Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, a school William will start attending a year later.

It was during that time that William also joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets, a youth organization that promotes interest in aviation and joining the Royal Canadian Air Force, and his joining of the RCAC contributed to his crawling out of his shell.

He also made plenty of friends while attending Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, and it was a sad feeling for him when Jonathan was promoted to head the new Wayne Enterprises regional office that opened up in Ottawa in 2010.

One thing worth mentioning was that William has a huge passion in trains and anything transportation-related.

As a young boy, while living in South Keys, he will often drag his parents to the nearby O-Train South Keys Station to watch the streetcars, buses and light metro trains go by.

His parents will also take him to downtown at times so he can watch the trains pulling in and out of Union Station and he enjoyed watching airplanes taking off, landing and taxiing during air trips when waiting for their flights at the airports.

Most of his toys were buses, tractor trailers and trains, and his drawings typically consists of buses, trams and trains, and he also enjoyed collected model trains, mainly in the N-scale.

He also had the pleasure of taking a ride on the Shinkansen in Japan when he accompanied his foster father to a conference in Tokyo in the winter of 2008, and as a souvenir, he bought a N-scale model of the 16-car N700 Series Shinkansen trainset.

Anyways, the family eventually moved into a small house in Old Ottawa South and William was enrolled in Glebe Collegiate Institute for Grade 10.

By this point, Jessica had graduated from high school and has started attending the University of Ottawa, studying bio-medical science.

It was also over the summer that William's transfer from his old air cadet squadron in Vancouver to an Ottawa-based air cadet squadron was approved. His new squadron is at RCAF Station Uplands, right near Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport.

Prior to his transfer from his old squadron in Vancouver, William had passed his Level 3 training test and, like his colleagues, received a promotion from Corporal (He and a few had the appointment of Flight Corporal) to Sergeant.

As he crossed the Bronson Bridge over the Rideau Canal, William looked towards Dows Lake on the west side of the bridge, where he thought back about the past summer.

During most of the two months that past summer, he was attending cadet summer training in RCAF Station Cold Lake in Alberta.

That came not long after his foster family moved out of their Vancouver apartment, and prior to his departure for summer camp, William had made arrangements so that on his last day, he will join the cadets that are returning to Edmonton.

Once he arrived at Edmonton, with the VIA Rail tickets his foster family had pre-booked for him months earlier in hand, William then made his way to Edmonton's CN Tower, which is where Edmonton Railway Station is located at.

At the station, William made his way through the ticket doors and proceeded to the LRC platforms, where he then boarded the Calgary-bound  _Wild Rose_.

**(Note: Unlike real-life, the railway lines that went through downtown Edmonton never got torn down in this world, nor was Canadian National Railway completely privatized.**

**Instead, Edmonton Railway Station remains at the basement of Edmonton's CN Tower as it was prior to 1998 in real-life, and the basement also houses an Edmonton Light Rail station, while CN Rail remains a Canadian Crown Corporation like VIA Rail is.**

**That being said, this world's version of CN Rail is a majority stock owner of a completely-privatized Air Canada, while CP Rail acquired majority stock of Canadian Airlines, which never merged with Air Canada like in real-life.**

**Also, the _Wild Rose_ is a fictional passenger train service operated by VIA Rail, named after Alberta's provincial flower and connects the province's two major cities.**

**In addition, the LRC is the fictional high speed rail service also operated by VIA Rail, where the LRC name is derived from the high-speed Bombardier LRC trainset that entered service in 1981.**

**Unlike real-life,** **to date (2010), there are four versions of the LRC train sets that has entered service with VIA Rail and are all electric-powered with the following:**

**LRC I: The original LRC train set that entered service in 1981 with push-pull formation and a service speed of 220 km/h**

**LRC II: Entered service in 1989 with a service speed of 250 km/h. Features an identical-looking cab car at the other end of the train instead of two locomotives used for the LRC I**

**LRC III: Entered service in 1996 with a service speed of 270 km/h. First electrical-multiple unit (EMU) train set**

**LRC IV: Entered service in 2005 with a service speed of 300 km/h**

**All LRC train sets have tilting capabilities.)**

After the 45-minute train ride, William arrived at Calgary, where he then transferred onto the Montreal-bound  _Canadian._

He could've flown directly from Edmonton to Ottawa, but William decided to take the  _Canadian_ to Ottawa, as he doesn't feel the need to be in a rush, plus he wants to take the time to enjoy the scenery.

It was a decision which his foster family agreed with, and so they booked the VIA Rail train tickets prior to their moving from Vancouver.

Thinking back on the train ride he made last month, William was sure glad to have made the decision to take the train to Ottawa. It was a good way for him to get the adjustment he needs, not to mention that he doesn't have to worry about jet lag.

As he watched a Canadian Light Rail Vehicle speeding down Bronson Ave., he was thinking what kind of interesting people will he meet and befriend in Glebe.

Those thoughts continued to cloud his mind as he approached the school building.

* * *

**Please read and review!**


	2. First day of classes

Chapter 2: First day of classes

William arrived at the front steps of Glebe Collegiate Institute and prepared to take off his flat cap as he entered the front doors. On his way to the front main hallway, he stopped by a newspaper rack and saw the three stacks of newspapers.

Two were English newspapers, the Ottawa Journal and the Ottawa Citizen, and the third was a French newspaper, Le Droit. He swiftly picked up a copy of each of the three newspapers before making his way to the front hallway.

From his school bag, he took out a flat, plaque-like plastic tablet that contained the layout of the high school.

Pinpointing his current location, he made his way to the nearby stairwell, headed downstairs and arrived in the cafeteria in the basement.

The place was crowded with students as they read the bulletins displaying each of the students' homerooms for the first day of school.

Being in tenth grade, William made his way to the sophomores section and walked to the far side bordering the juniors' section, given the fact that the names are arranged alphabetically through the students' surnames.

With his surname of "Wu", William knew that he would be in the far end of the section.

After finding his name and homeroom number, William left the cafeteria and made a left turn before finding the stairs.

His homeroom is located on the top floor, which meant that he was quite out of breath after reaching the top of the stairs.

Consulting his map and pinpointing his current location, William saw that he has to walk through the narrow hallway right in front of him, during which he saw the entrance to a physics classroom of sorts, based on what he saw inside the classroom in question through the open door.

Eventually, after reaching the south end of the narrow hallway, William turned right, walked through the double doors and eventually arrived outside his homeroom.

For some reason, he felt that the school seemed haunted as he walked through that narrow hallway and before walking through the double doors that eventually led him to his homeroom.

The central stairwell also looked haunted, though he attributed those characteristics of looking haunted to the lack of windows in the stairwell and at the east end of the school building.

Anyways, William decided to settle and sat by the window facing north across the door leading to his homeroom, and as he did so, he took out the three newspapers he had picked up earlier at the main entrance and started reading them, starting first with the Ottawa Journal.

As he scanned through the pages, William glanced at his golden digital watch to check the time.

He still had fifteen minutes before the bell is to ring and signal the students that they should be heading for their classrooms.

William read through the pages, had a chuckle when he read the editorial cartoon and then put down the paper and picked up the Ottawa Citizen.

While doing so, he looked around and spotted a group of other students gathering at the nearby lockers already.

He was surprised by how the group were already utilizing the lockers across the hallway from where he was seated at.

Perhaps they already got their school timetable and locker numbers during the summer.

Among the group of students were a trio of boys with short black hair and wearing glasses, and he noticed one of them to be particularly close with a blonde-haired girl.

The bigger surprise, though, will be his spotting of two other students within the group who seemed particularly close.

One of them was a boy with shaggy-style black hair and he appeared to be of South Asian descent.

"Maybe he's from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh." William thought to himself with regards to the boy in question.

The other student close to the boy in question was a girl with chest-long black hair, and she appeared to be of East Asian descent. She's probably from Korea or Japan or maybe China, William thought before noting the different ethnicities of the couple he was glancing at.

"I wonder if their parents approve of their relationship." William thought to himself.

"Well, as long as their relationship is pure and honourable and their parents are okay with it, I don't see why that should be my business." William thought before shrugging and carried on reading the remaining two newspapers.

One thing worth noting was that during his time in Vancouver, he had also started studying French and has pretty much become literate in the language and can write in it.

In fact, it was his enrollment in the French immersion in at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School that led to his being able to converse with others in French fluently.

William did know that across the Ottawa River, over in Hull, Quebec, most of the people speak French, as with people living in the province of Quebec.

He was reading the editorial pages of  _Le Droit_  when the bell rang, Swiftly, he put down the paper, placed it in his school bag and got up before walking across the hallway into the classroom.

As he walked into the classroom, the loudspeakers in the hallways started playing  _Pump it Up_ , a rock song written and performed by Elvis Costello.

Rocking and nodding his head with the music, William made his way into the classroom.

After he took a seat near the front of the classroom, he noticed that two of the guys with glasses he saw earlier also entering the classroom.

William didn't say a word as he took out his pencil case and binder loaded with notebook paper before looking around.

The teacher appeared to be middle-aged, perhaps in her 40s. Like him and the two other boys, she also wore glasses.

Some time went by as the classroom begin to fill with students.

He noticed a boy of African descent entering, two girls also of East Asian descent and several more other students, among them being two blonde-haired girls, a boy who may be of Hispanic descent and a couple of girls wearing hijabs and appeared to be of Middle-Eastern descent.

By that point, the school's radio station had finished playing  _Pump it Up_  and started playing another rock song.

Eventually, the bell rang and then the performance of the national anthem, followed by the morning announcements came from the main office.

The class for first period was Canadian History, and his teacher is Ms. Susan Linney, who appeared to be in her mid-40s.

Once the morning announcements ended, she introduced herself to the class before handing out the students' timetables while taking attendance.

After that, she then introduced the course and went through the objectives before proceeding with a class activity.

William took the time to study his school timetable and took note of his locker number.

Seeing that his locker is also located on the third floor, he figured that he can spend lunch period walking around the hallways to find his locker.

After History class, he headed to his second period class, which was Orchestral Music.

The teacher is Ms. Harriet Finnley, who was a violinist in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with a brief stint as concertmaster prior to taking up music teaching.

As with the previous class, most of the class was spent on going through the course outline and objectives, though for this class, after the introduction to the course, the rest of the period was spent watching a taped concert of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in their performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Eventually came lunch period, and William made his way to the cafeteria after washing his hands in the washroom.

He was new to the school, so he didn't know anyone just yet.

As a result, he elected to sit at the corner of a table near the middle of the cafeteria by himself, right at the end facing the cafeteria's corridor.

As William ate his sandwich with some rock music playing from the loudspeakers, he looked around and noticed a trio of other students, all girls.

The girls were chatting in Mandarin Chinese, and two of them were speaking to each other in another Chinese dialect he didn't understood.

"說不定她們兩人是從中國同一個省來的。" (Maybe those two came from the same province in China.) William thought to himself as he took another bite.

After he finished his sandwich, he was about to munch on an apple when two of the girls left the table, probably to grab some lunch, and the third girl who didn't speak the dialect the other two were conversing in went to him.

"Excuse me." She said to William, who looked up to her, as she nodded at the chair beside him. "Are you using this chair?"

"No." William shook his head. "You can take it."

"Thank you." The girl nodded as she took the chair and William resumed eating his apple.

A few minutes went by before the girl asked him, "So where are you from?"

William thought that she may have become curious about the topic due to his appearance suggesting a certain ethnicity similar to hers and that of her friends.

"Taiwan." William replied before resuming eating.

The girl nodded understandingly before her two friends returned with their lunches and took their seats.

The rest of the lunch period went by without anything significant for William, and once he finished his lunch, he packed up his lunch bag, got up from his seat and headed out of the cafeteria, intending to take a walk around the block.

It was during his walk that he located his assigned locker. It was in the area in the third floor that struck to him as where the French classrooms are located.

Swiftly, he took out the green combination lock he has been using since his attending Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School and hooked it on the locker door before proceeding to put his school bag and lunch bag in the locker.

After locking his stuff in the locker, William carried on with his walk around the block.

Along the way, he walked past the group of students he encountered earlier in the morning and glanced by as he noticed one of the couples cuddling while the others were sat close to each other and chatting with the rest of the group.

Anyways, after lunch period came his third period class: Career studies.

The teacher is Mrs. Diana McPhee, who, like Ms. Linney, appeared to be middle-aged and appeared to be stern but fair. Looking around, William recognized a handful of students from his History class and another from his Music class.

Eventually came the final period class, which was Science, and the teacher is Mr. Jeff Wilkinson, who appeared to be of easy manner.

Prior to the class, he noticed one particularly tall boy with rough-looking hair, which made him thought he was a bully of sorts, maybe a jock.

William shrugged as he sat in his seat on the east side of the classroom and paid attention to the teacher as he went through the course introduction.

After the bell rang at 15:00, William and the rest of the class headed out and he made his way to his locker to grab his belongings and head home for the day.

That Tuesday was a rush for him, as that evening was also the first day of the cadet training year at his new air cadet squadron.

His new squadron, one of the three local squadrons forming an Ottawa-based air cadet wing, has two training days per week, one on Tuesday and the other on Thursday, not to mention that he is going to need to get a new dress tunic for his uniform, considering the fact that he had returned his old one on the last training night back in Vancouver.

As a result, he had to arrive home early for homework, dinner and then head off to Uplands for the training night.

As he walked along Bronson Avenue, he wondered what interesting events awaits him in Glebe.

* * *

**Please read and review!**


	3. An encounter with the Fantino sisters

Chapter 3: An encounter with the Fantino sisters

_September 30, 2010_

The first four weeks of William's attendance at Glebe Collegiate Institute went by like a flash, and in those weeks, a handful of interesting things came to William's attention, in addition to him establishing some typical routines.

One of those routines was him carrying his MP3 player around and into the cafeteria during lunch period so he can listen to a handful of classical music pieces while having lunch and walking around the block.

On the ninth of September, he made two new female friends in his Grade 10 Science class, both of whom took interest in his apparent smartness and sharp mind, which will later be proved well when they worked together in a lab the day after.

Also, during Orchestral Music class, he attracted the attention of several classmates and the teacher with his superb violin-playing and skilled piano-playing.

As a consequence, he was made the student concertmaster of the school orchestra, with practices taking place every Monday and Wednesday after school.

That role as a concertmaster also enabled William to learn conducting from Ms. Finnley, and there has been occasions where he conducted the school orchestra in Ms. Finnley's absence during practices.

Currently, the school orchestra are practicing a handful of music pieces for upcoming concerts during the school year: A handful of waltzes and marches by Johann Strauss Jr., Giuseppe Verdi's overture to  _La Traviata_ , Gioachino Rossini's overtures to  _L'italiana in Algeri_ and  _William Tell_ , the first seven Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms, George Gershwin's  _An American in Paris_  and Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Nos 2 and 3.

William really enjoyed Orchestral Music class and taking part in the orchestra practices.

All the practices reinforced his interest in classical music. As a matter a fact, he have dozens of classical music CDs and has a CD player in his bedroom, specific for him to listen to the music conveniently.

In addition, William came to enjoy tuning into CBC Radio 2 every day, particularly after school and after he had finished his homework when he's free.

Anyways, William started to make more friends during those four weeks, including the guy in Science class who he thought looked like a bully.

William learned that his name is Kenneth Smith and he is quite the cheerful and easy-going-type.

He also made a handful of friends in his Career studies class, particularly after making a PowerPoint presentation.

The presentation in question was about the students' chosen future careers, with each student presenting two careers.

William's chosen two careers for the presentation were that of an architect and a cartoonist.

In the two weeks leading up to the presentation, the students do their research on their picked careers and present their findings in a slideshow, together with images or drawings to accommodate the slide show.

Eventually came the day of presentation, and prior to the first presentation, the students were asked to grab a number sheet from a hat without peeking.

William got the number thirteen, while his friend Larry got the number three. However, Larry haven't quite finished his slideshow.

As Mrs. McPhee continued to walk around the classroom with students picking numbers, Larry turned to William and after discussing the numbers they've got, the former asked, "You mind if I swap numbers with you, William?"

"Sure, no problem." William shrugged. After all, he was finished with his slideshow and was anxious to get on with his presentations.

As a matter a fact, he was hoping that he will get a number that is before ten.

"Great." Larry smiled as they traded their number sheets. "It's just that I haven't finished my slideshow."

"Not a problem, Larry." William said. "I was looking forward to presenting today anyways."

Eventually came William's turn to present, and his presentation instantly made him popular with the whole class, particularly with the humour he used as he presented along, together with his drawings and figures in the slides.

"Way to go, William!" Marian Neals praised after William finished his presentation and returned to his seat. "That was a great slideshow!"

"Thanks, Sandra." William replied with a smile as he took his seat.

Outside of class, William also made a handful of friends during lunchtime, including with a girl named Ellen.

However, it was also during this time that he made a couple of rivals, or more to the point, nemeses at school: In the form of the Fantino twins.

Rose Fantino and her twin sister Cheryl Fantino have been butting heads with William since, well, early in the fourth week of school, even though it was no fault of William's. It all started rather abruptly with no provocation on William's part.

As mentioned before, William began making a lot of friends at school, and accelerated by his slideshow for Career studies, became quite popular in his classes, particularly due to his friendliness, sense of humour, sensible, shiness and sharp mind.

By contrast, the Fantinos, in spite of doing well in classes particularly in the past year of their attendance, were never popular in school.

Rose and Cheryl are part of a fairly-wealthy family. Their father Doug is an investor, a businessman of sorts, while their mother Laura usually stays at home, with their family hiring the services of a butler, and the sisters are often seen sporting fashionable clothes at school.

The Fantinos, particularly the mother and daughters, are well-known for their stinginess.

All they seem to care about are money and social status, and the sisters often acted like, or expected them to be treated, like nobility, something that irritates their peers at school.

Another factor that made the sisters very unpopular at school is their spoiled, self-centered, impatient and selfish characters, with the motto "My way or the highway" and having the attitude of everything that goes wrong on their end is everybody else's fault.

The fact that William, who barely transferred to Glebe at the start of the school year, was already becoming popular in school made the Fantino sisters jealous.

That was proven to be the case that late-afternoon after dinner, when William was on his way to his cadet training night in summer work dress uniform.

His uniform consists of a dress shirt with a name plate labelled "WU", shoulder slip-ons that indicated his rank of Sergeant (Consisting of three chevrons worn downwards with the word "Cadet" at the bottom), the shirt tucked behind a pair of dress trousers and wearing a belt with a brass buckle.

On top of that, he was wearing the issued drill ankle-high boots, along with the issued wedge cap and his trademark green-gold watch, in addition to be holding a small briefcase carrying his notes.

As usual, William was riding the streetcar heading for Billings Bridge, where he will transfer onto the Union-MacDonald-Cartier Express, an airport express train that links Ottawa Union Station in downtown to the airport.

Once he arrives at the airport, he will then take a five-to-ten-minute walk to the military installment located on base, where the training takes place.

After the streetcar pulled into the streetcar and bus stop terminal at the station, William then got off and made his way to the commuter rail platform.

As William marched his way through the main hall of the station, he encountered a navy officer walking in the opposite direction towards the main doors.

Without hesitation, he placed his right hand up and stiffened his left arm in salute. "Sir!"

The navy officer in question placed his right hand up in response and nodded in acknowledgement before placing it back down, and William followed suit.

A few seconds went by before William spotted two familiar-figures ahead walking in the same direction as the navy officer who had saw his saluting of the officer.

"Well, look at that show-off walking like a new recruit." Rose said as she and Cheryl walked over to William. "You know that you should straighten your back further more if you want to earn a favour from that officer."

"My back is very straight, ladies." William replied nonchalantly. "Thank you very much for the suggestion, and for your information, it's customary for cadets and soldiers to salute officers while in uniform to show respect, not to earn a favour. If the latter was actually the case, I won't be wearing these slip-ons."

He nodded at his Sergeant rank as he made the last remark.

"Yeah, whatever." Cheryl rolled her eyes. "I suppose it's time for you to go do plenty of push-ups as punishment for crashing a fighter jet, then."

"Yeah, right." William replied. "I haven't even reached the minimum age for me to get my pilot's license, plus we cadets don't go near fighter jets regularly and aren't trained to pilot one unless the circumstances warrants that to take place. If you sisters really think that you know a lot about the military better than I do, then good for you. I suggest that you go join the Air Cadets, then."

"Huh." Rose snorted. "Coming from someone who keeps hoarding all the fame in school."

"Yeah, sure." William replied sarcastically. "Now, I don't know what you ladies are talking about or why are you speaking to me the way you are right now, but if you girls show more respect and kindness to your peers at school, believe me, you wouldn't be having issues making friends."

In his time at Glebe, William also heard gossips about the disdain much of the students have towards the Fantinos, though he was taught never to gossip, and he was glad he never agreed with the idea, even if the very people subjected to the gossip are among the most despicable people he's ever encountered.

Glancing at his watch, William added, "Now, if you'll excuse me, ladies, I've got a train to catch."

He then walked away from the sisters without another word while they looked on.

"Bet he'll be ordered to do plenty of push-ups if he arrives late." Cheryl scoffed as they watched William disappeared into the crowd.

"I won't be surprised if that is the case." Rose agreed. "Now, we'd better get our shopping done."

Her sister nodded as they continued their way towards the station doors.

Both sisters looked quite attractive, particularly with the expensive-looking clothes they're wearing.

However, their face expressions lacked character and it was easy to see through the friendly façade in their smiles and recognize the insincerity in them.

As William marched his way through the faregates, tapping his smart card on the reader as he went through them, and made his way to the southbound platform, he kept thinking about the encounter he had with the Fantinos.

"難怪很多學校同學都說那對番艼譨姊妹是被寵壞的。" (No wonder many schoolmates said that those Fantino sisters are spoiled.) He thought to himself as he made his way to the stairs leading to the railway platforms.

He also remembered hearing news that the sisters' mother has been hoping that they'll marry a socially and financially well-off husband.

"我為她們兩姊妹的未來丈夫感到抱歉。" (I sure pity their future husbands.) William thought, not having difficulties imagining what the Fantino sister's' future husbands will have to put up with: All the constant complaining and demands and their spoiled and money-hungry characters, unless the husbands themselves are just as bad as the sisters.

He shrugged at the thought as he climbed up the stairs and made his way to the platform, waiting only a few minutes before the express train pulls into the station platform.

* * *

**Please read and review!**


	4. A fire drill and the theft

Chapter 4: A fire drill and the theft

_October 6, 2010_

More than a week after his encounter with the Fantino sisters, William was continuing on with his school routines as usual.

By that point, he had gotten settled in with the school work and continued to make new friends, plenty of whom that are willing to spring to his defense whenever the Fantino sisters tangle with him.

That morning, William was reading the newspaper as usual. One article that attracted his attention was the case of a disgraced RCAF group captain who is scheduled to appear in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice the following day after waiving his right to a preliminary inquiry during his last court appearance this past August.

The group captain in question was the commanding officer of 8th Wing at RCAF Station Trenton, a command he held until this past February when he came under investigation for the murder of a 27-year old woman, an investigation that led to his arrest.

Reading the details of the case, including the disgraced group captain's confession to the crimes and the repercussions that followed, William shook his head in disapproval before flipping a page.

"那位上校真的有病的。" (That group captain sure is sick.) He thought to himself.

In another article, William read about the new Governor General adjusting to his roles and responsibilities almost a week after taking office.

William nodded thoughtfully as he read along before flipping the page again.

The next article he came upon was that of another day at Parliament, where the opposition parties in both the House of Commons and the Senate continued to hammer the government over a number of policies.

Although William has yet to start taking Civics class, which begins halfway through the semester once he's finished Career studies, he has read enough news articles to get a basic understanding on how government works.

He knows that under Canada's parliamentary system of government inherited from the British system, after an election, the leader of the party or coalition that secures the most seats in the House of Commons is asked by the Governor General, who represents the Queen in Canada, to form a cabinet and the leader thus becomes the prime minister.

Through the news articles he had read in the past while, he knows that the governing Conservatives is the largest party in both the House and the Senate, except that the party doesn't have an outright majority in either chamber.

With what the British refer to as a hung parliament and what is typically referred as a minority government in Canada, the government has to tread carefully in order to avoid getting defeated in a motion of no confidence that can be filed by the opposition in both the House and the Senate, a move that will then trigger a new election.

**(Note: The Senate of Canada in this world is an elected chamber like its Australian counterpart, unlike real life, therefore senators can introduce a motion of no confidence like MPs (Members of Parliament) does in the House of Commons of Canada.)**

From what William had read online, in the most-recent federal election in 2008, it has resulted in another Conservative minority government with the opposition Liberals and NDP maintaining their combined majority in the Senate.

William snorted when he read a part where a cabinet minister, during Question Period the previous day, deflected the opposition's criticisms and shot back at his critics.

"Typical politics." He thought to himself.

He shrugged to himself as he made his way to the editorial cartoons, where he had a nice chuckle of the cartoon for the day.

The rest of the school day went by normally, although around 14:30, half an hour before the end of his Career studies class in the final period, there was a fire drill practice.

At that time, like most students in class, William was busy typing away at his resume when the loud fire alarm went off.

There was some groans from the class as Mrs. McPhee stood up from her chair.

"Alright, everyone." She ordered. "Lock your computers and time to head out!"

She then clapped her hands to get the class to hurry up, and several of the students moved quick to lock their computers and got up from their seats.

In the course of the evacuation, William walked with his pals as they headed across First Avenue and onto the sidewalk on the other side of the street, chatting as they went.

As the faculty gathered on the sidewalk across First Avenue, William can hear the sirens from a distance.

"Here comes the fire trucks from Bank Street." He remarked to his friends.

"Let's hope we can get this over with soon." One of his friends, named Alex, remarked. "It's getting chilly out here with the wind."

"Tell me about it." Another, named Ahmed, agreed. "In the rush of evacuating, I forgot to bring my jacket."

Several moments went by and William noticed some students sitting on the sidewalk playing cards.

"You know, guys, maybe next time we ought to bring playing cards with us." He said to his friends, gesturing to the group of students playing cards as he spoke.

"Say, that's a good idea, William." Larry agreed. "That way, we can find a way to pass the time while we wait for the fire department to shut off the alarm."

"Indeed." Marian, who overheard the conversation, nodded in agreement.

Ahmed and Alex both nodded in agreement as well, and William then looked around, trying to see if he might spot anyone from his other classes in the crowd.

The faculty looked on as the sirens became louder and louder by the minute, and then they spotted the fire trucks rushing down First Avenue, arriving from Station 12 on Fifth Avenue.

Eventually, the fire alarm inside the school building was shut off and the faculty was given the all-clear signal to re-enter the school building.

For the faculty members on the First Avenue side, they had to wait for an OC Transpo Orion VI bus, with its destination sign at the front signing "56 Tunney's Pasture", pass by before crossing the street and re-enter the school building.

Once all of the class returned to the classroom, everyone resumed what they were doing earlier before the class was placed on hold following the fire alarm going off.

The rest of the class went by as usual and then the bell rang, indicating that the class is over.

William, who had taken note of the time while typing away at his resume, was quick to save his work onto his USB stick, close the windows and then logged off before gathering his binder and pencil case, in time for the bell to ring.

With the bell ringing, Mrs. McPhee called out, "Alright class. I'll see you all tomorrow. Remember that you all need to have your resumes finished by Friday afternoon."

There were some nods from the students as everyone began simultaneously log off their computers and gather their belongings.

As William got up from his seat, he turned to Jasmine and Larry, who were seated next to him.

"See you guys tomorrow." He said to them.

"Yep." Larry nodded. "See you, Bill."

William nodded back before he made his way to the main door, where he then made his left turn and headed down the hallway.

Like the preceding Wednesdays, William has orchestra practice after school, and he walked quick towards the west end of the building - where the drama and arts classrooms are at - and then took the stairwell to the top floor, where his locker is at.

Several moments later, he was down in the basement of the school building with his violin, and he whistled as he walked past the library entrance.

The school orchestra shares a bomb shelter-like area in the basement, near the gym, with the bands for their practice area, and the area is mainly accessible through a stairway from the southern hallway in the basement, close to where the change rooms for gym and the access path to the school's swimming pool is at.

* * *

Practice went by as usual with the orchestra enjoyed practicing the overture to Verdi's  _La Traviata_ , particularly with the first two rehearsals done under William's leadership while Ms. Finnley was out to get coffee and other refreshments at the Tim Horton's located in the gas station near the Queensway.

Eventually, the students were heading up the stairs after calling it a day.

As William chatted with a few schoolmates as they walked westward, they saw a couple of police officers walking into the school through the First Avenue entrance doors.

Seeing the two officers, William and his pals shared a look with each other.

"Say, what's going on?" Jessica, one of his pals, asked.

"I guess we'll soon find out." William replied as they rounded the corner. "Besides, I recognized one of the officers walking in."

After rounding the corner, the scene in front of them became clearer.

There were some students, a man who they recognized as the school principal Mr. Kenneth Douglas, a woman who they recognized as the school librarian Mrs. Katherine Bennett and four police officers, gathered around a locker whose door that was obviously forced open.

And one of the girls was having hysterics, which meant it didn't take long for William to figure that her locker was the one that was forced open.

Also at the scene was a broken combination lock that was apparently cut open.

"Whoever did this was clearly a piece of work." One of the officers was saying as William and company passed by.

"Yes indeed." The second officer nodded. "The perpetrator was clearly in search for something and was very sure he or she could find it here in this locker."

"The question is who and why?" Mr. Douglas asked. "Why go through the trouble of damaging school property?"

"It could be that the victim has something the perpetrator wanted really badly." The first officer offered.

As the second officer turned, William immediately recognized him as Pilot Officer Rupert Larrison, his level training officer at his air cadet squadron who's also a police officer.

Larrison turned and upon seeing William, paused.

"Ah, Mr. Wu." Larrison said as he and William made eye contact. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, sir." William nodded before turning to the girl and added, "Though with what we've got in front of us, I'm sure she isn't doing well."

"Yes indeed." Larrison nodded before he and the constables turned to Mr. Douglas and Mrs. Bennett. "We're looking at a forced breaking and entry right here."

"Certainly looks like it, sir." William nodded. "At this point, any idea on who could've done such a thing?"

"No." Larrison shook his head. "However, like Constable Tucker here was saying earlier, whoever did this must've saw something the victim has that he or she clearly wanted to get his hands on very badly."

"And this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated, considering the damage done to school property." Mr. Douglas added.

"Yes indeed." Tucker nodded.

After several moments of discussion between the group, where it is revealed that the culprit stole a priceless pocket watch from the victim, Larrison and the three constables all promised to get to the bottom of the case before they took their leaves.

As William carried on to the stairwell with his friends, he remarked to Jessica. "I sure hope they find the culprit that did this."

"I certainly hope so too." Jessica nodded in agreement.

* * *

After returning home from school, William went through his usual routine of finishing his school work while listening to some CDs playing classical music.

As he worked on his school work, Jessica and Sandra were preparing dinner in the kitchen.

William eventually finished his school work and joined his foster sister and mother in the kitchen chores.

As he joined them in the kitchen, William said, " _今天下午，有人破壞一個學生的置物櫃、並且偷了她擁有的金懷錶。_ " (This afternoon, someone broke into a student's locker and stole her golden pocket watch.)

" _真的嗎?_ " (Oh, really?) Jessica asked as she paused from her chopping carrots.

" _是的。_ " (That's right.) William nodded before proceeding to tell them about the theft and his meeting with Pilot Officer Larrison.

" _一定是有不良人士趁火打劫的。_ " (Must be someone taking advantage of a fire and robbing.) Sandra remarked after William finished the story. " _希望警方遲早抓到那位梁上君子。_ " (Hope the police capture the thief.)

" _我也希望如此。_ " (I hope so too.) William nodded in agreement.

* * *

That night, William was lying on his bed as he struggled to get some sleep.

However, he wasn't able to keep the theft and the sight of the smashed locker door out of his mind.

* * *

**Please read and review!**


	5. A couple of discussions

Chapter 5: A couple of discussions

_October 7, 2010_

The next day, William went through his usual routine when he arrived at school and is presently seated in front of his locker and reading the newspaper as usual.

One news article that day that attracted his attention was one detailing a derailment of a VIA train at Montreal's Windsor Station the previous day, and from what he'd read, the train in question was returning from Quebec City through Trois Rivieres when it derailed while in the process of pulling into the station.

**(Railway-related note: Unlike real life, in this world, Windsor Station in Montreal remains in use, both for commuter trains and intercity trains with the following aspects:**

**First off, while Windsor Station in Montreal remains in use and is one of the two AMT (Now exo) commuter rail terminuses in the city, the tracks has been moved underground with the construction and opening of Bell Centre in 1996.**

**As such, Windsor Station is now integrated with Bell Centre and the nearby Lucien-L'Allier Metro station through underground pathways and shops that are part of Montreal's Underground City and the AMT (Now exo) Lucien-L'Allier commuter rail terminus doesn't exist unlike real life.**

**Second, for VIA Rail operations, the trains that serve Windsor Station in Montreal are mainly those that arrive from Quebec City, Ottawa and Toronto through CP Rail routings.**

**While Central Station remains more heavily-used when it comes to VIA trains, Windsor Station provides a much-needed backup to relieve the pressure on Central Station tracks during peak periods.**

**In addition, selected trips of Amtrak's _Adirondack_  serves Windsor Station during peak periods, due to VIA Rail being more better-funded and has more frequent and reliable service in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor than it does in real-life.**

**Third, CP Rail's headquarters are still at Windsor Station as opposed to moving to Calgary like it did in real life in the 1990s. In addition, the CP Rail-owned Canadian Airlines (Which never merged with Air Canada in 2001 like in real life) has corporate offices in Windsor Station.**

**And fourth, in Montreal, VIA Rail's LRC high speed rail service serves a deeper underground platform located under the block that is halfway through the walking distance from Windsor Station to Central Station with the platform itself linked to both rail terminuses with appropriate signage directing passengers to the correct station, where the underground pathways also integrated into Bell Centre, Lucien-L'Allier Metro station and Montreal's underground city.)**

_Holy cow_. William remarked to himself as he read the article detailing the derailment, his eyes scanning the article as it details the scene.

The article also stated that due to the derailment taking place near the crucial rail switch leading to the tracks at the VIA Rail platforms of the station, all VIA trains arriving from Ottawa and Toronto are temporarily diverted to Central Station until Transportation Safety Board investigators complete their investigation.

As William read on, he noted that the VIA Rail CEO, speaking from his office at VIA Rail headquarters at Ottawa Union Station, has pledged that the Crown Corporation will be cooperating fully with TSB investigators, a sentiment echoed by his counterpart at CP Rail, who owns the Westmount Subdivision tracks that terminates at Windsor Station.

The news of the derailment also came on the eve of VIA Rail awarding a contract to Bombardier Transportation to supply 30 new Talent 2 train sets, train sets that will be the first of their kind to have electro-diesel power and will be used in the regional train services in both the Atlantic Corridor and the Sudbury-White River line.

William paused his lips before flipping the page of the paper, and he spent the next several minutes as he moved on to the editorial cartoon.

* * *

The first half of the school day went by as usual, though from what William had gathered through the whispers from his classmates, the girl who had her golden pocket watch stolen from yesterday's locker break-in hadn't recovered the stolen pocket watch.

After finishing his lunch in the cafeteria, William went through his usual routine of walking around the school block.

He was walking down the western hallway in the school's basement, adjacent to the school library, when he noticed that the broken-in locker from yesterday's break-in had been boarded shut with crime scene tape decorating the wooden board.

William paused as he stared at the boarded-up locker and frowned, wondering if the victim is going to end up with a new locker for the remainder of the school year.

"It's quite the sight, isn't it?" A voice said to William, causing him to jump a bit, startled, before he turned towards the source and recognized the girl speaking to him.

"You can say that." William nodded as he recognized the girl as the victim whose locker is presently boarded up as a result of yesterday's break-in. "I'm sorry about what happened yesterday. It's not everyday you finish class and get to your locker, only to find it forced open with the lock cut open."

"There's no need to apologize for something you didn't do." The girl smiled at him sadly. "Though I sure as heck wish that the police would do their job and catch the culprit that did this."

"I heard that they haven't caught the culprit." William frowned.

"They haven't." The girl shook her head. "And what's worse is that I now have to change lockers, and given that all of the lockers in this hallway have been taken, that means I'll be getting a new locker that's far away from my friends, who are all here in this hallway."

"That's a shame." William nodded. "Though I understand what you mean. After all, I have yet to get acquainted with my lockermates, not to mention its located in the dull French corner, pardon my French."

The girl chuckled lightly. "Third floor, at the building's northwest?"

"You got it." William replied before he offered his hand and added, "By the way, the name's William. William Walter Wu, I'm in Grade 10."

"Chelsea McGee." Chelsea introduced herself as she shook William's offered hand. "I'm also in Grade 10."

"Ah, I see." William nodded. "I take it that your schedule's completely different than mine, or otherwise, I would've noticed you in one of my classes."

"Depends." Chelsea shrugged before they turned back towards her trashed up locker and sighed. "This sure is annoying."

"You can say that again." William agreed. "One thing is that I do know one of the officers that responded to yesterday's call."

"Oh yeah?" Chelsea turned towards him.

"I'm in the air cadets, and the officer in question is also one of my training officers at my squadron." William explained.

"Ah, I see." Chelsea nodded thoughtfully. "If you see him, maybe you should tell him what I'm about to tell you."

"What is it?" William arched his eyebrows.

* * *

Later that late afternoon, William was going through his usual routine of having a quick dinner before changing into his uniform for the evening's cadet training night at RCAF Station Uplands.

For that particular training night, he was to dress up in his cadet full service dress uniform, which also saw him putting on the cadet-issued peaked cap instead of the wedge cap.

A major reason for the full service dress uniform was because that evening is the monthly CO's parade, and for this particular night, there's a guest of honour who's going to be reviewing the parade that night.

It was a night of major importance for William, as he's the second-in-command of Flight 3 and given the responsibilities that comes with that position and his rank of Sergeant, he needs to make sure that the cadets in his flight look their best.

As per his usual routine on his cadet training night, he first made his way to Bronson Avenue to take the Route 4 streetcar, which then brought him to Billings Bridge Shopping Centre.

After getting off the streetcar at the transit terminal, William then made the transfer onto the O-Train National Capital Line, which is one of the two major rail services connecting the airport with downtown Ottawa.

He could've taken the Moose Rail-operated Union-MacDonald-Cartier Express, which offers a more speedy-service linking Union Station in downtown with the airport, like he did that particular night when he encountered the Fatino sisters, though the Moose Rail fares are much more expensive compared to the one-way fare of $2.00 for streetcars, buses and the O-Train.

Plus, for that particular week, the Moose Rail Uplands Subdivision was undergoing signal upgrades and as such, passengers wishing to get to the airport have to take the O-Train instead.

With the paper transfer he had obtained when boarding the streetcar in hand, William simply placed the transfer onto the scanner on the faregates, which then scans the barcode on the transfer before the gates opened and let him through.

He waited for a few minutes before the Siemens SD-160NG light metro vehicle pulled into the platform, whereupon he and the passengers heading for South Keys and the airport embarked on the train.

From what he had read, the OC Transpo Siemens SD-160s and the SD-160NGs are special in that the vehicles are equipped with the shoes for current collection through third rail, compared to its counterparts in Calgary, Edmonton, Denver and Salt Lake City, whose vehicles are equipped with pantographs.

Anyways, when William arrived at the hanger on base and took part in the senior's inspection prior to the opening parade, the senior all learned about the nature of the night's closing parade.

Turns out that the reviewing officer for the night's closing parade is Lieutenant Colonel Martha Plame, who has recently assumed command of the 5th Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment based at Royal Canadian Naval Air Station Shearwater in Halifax.

From what William had read, the 5th Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment is one of the two battalions of the RCR (The other being the 6th Battalion based in Royal Canadian Naval Base Esquimalt on Vancouver Island) to have amphibious and naval infantry roles akin to the U.S. Marine Corps or the British Royal Marines, hence the reason why the two Canadian Army battalions are based at naval bases.

In fact, the two battalions are informally collectively referred to as the "Royal Canadian Marine Corps" and has traditionally taken part in international missions with the U.S. Marine Corps, the Royal Marines and the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.

William nodded as the wing's cadet parade commander, WO1 Martha St. Laurent, began going through the activities for the night, particularly on her emphasis on making sure that the cadets in their flights look their best.

After the seniors were dismissed from the meeting, he joined his friend Flight Sergeant Elizabeth Lumumba, who's the Flight 3 commander, in getting their flight assembled as the cadets began to gather near the entrance upon arrival.

With the cadets in their flight assembled, the two seniors wasted no time ordering the flight to do a right dress and line themselves up, which was then followed by the inspection of the individual cadets in making sure that their uniform is in best shape.

Most of the cadets were wearing their issued wedge caps, a trait attributed to the fact that recent budget issues meant that the peaked caps are available only to the seniors, cadets at the rank of sergeant and above.

* * *

The first half of the training night went by as usual, and during break time, William wasted no time making his way through the hanger to find Pilot Officer Larrison.

It didn't take long for William to find the pilot officer, who was finishing a conversation with another cadet when he noticed the sergeant approaching.

The cadet then left as Larrison turned his attention towards William, who then stopped in front of him and placed his right hand up to salute.

"Mr. Wu." Larrison nodded after returning the salute. "How's your evening so far?"

"It's coming along, sir." William nodded. "You know, the usual."

"So what can I do for you?" Larrison asked, judging from the look of urgency on William's face. "I see that there's something in your mind, Mr. Wu."

"As a matter a fact, there is, sir." William nodded. "I was just wondering if there's been any progress in the investigation into yesterday's locker break-in at Glebe."

"I understand." Larrison nodded before frowning and added, "Unfortunately, from what I've gathered, the CID has not found anything useful that could led them closer to the culprits behind yesterday's break-in."

"Dang." William frowned. "Like, no identifying features that could point the finger towards who the culprit is?"

"No." Larrison shook his head. "As you know, the southwest corner of the basement floor does not have a functioning security camera, so my colleagues have not been able to establish a basis on any physical features of the culprit."

"What a bummer." William remarked. "Anyways, I happened to run into the victim of yesterday's locker break-in, and she told me something that I thought you should know about."

"What of it?" Larrison raised an eyebrow.

Lowering his voice, William then said, "She thinks that the Fantino sisters may have a hand in planning the locker break-in."

* * *

**New chapter in time for 2019, and please read and review!**

**To all of my readers, I wish you all a Happy New Year.**


End file.
